Soilutions offers an alternative to city green waste recycling

Q: Hi Tracey, I read your article in the paper about the city’s green waste recycling program and there is an even better way to get rid of yard waste that will be used to help generate soil and the drop-off is free. A company called Soilutions, off Broadway Boulevard at 9008 Bates Road SE. They are a food/waste composting company where you can drop off yard waste for free! — J.A., Albuquerque

A: Having perused the website for this company, Soilutions is offering a great way to compost a whole myriad of green waste products. Good on them. I have a co-worker that purchased some Soilutions products to fill newly made raised beds in their yard and they are so impressed with the stuff.

However, the service offered by the city that I wrote about comes to you. Twice a year the city crews come by and will whisk away all of the yard waste that you have collected, having very specific guidelines for the green waste collections. I know so many folks that do not have a way to deliver green waste anywhere. So many live on truly fixed incomes that the thought of hiring someone to remove their green waste can send chills down their spines.

So, for those of us that do not have access to anyone in their world that would assist to get their green waste away, I am going to continue to tout the city’s green waste recycling program from the rafters.

I’m glad that you felt strongly enough to teach me, and now others, about the good works done by Soilutions as a way to dispose of yard waste (with very specific rules too).

Q: We purchased a home on the West Side that had been sitting vacant. Now, a month and a half later, we’re for the most part settled and can now focus more on the landscaping. We have been watering and certainly the recent rains have helped, but we do have work ahead of us. There is one long bed of a lot of iris. They look so tattered and brown on the tops of their tall leaves. We know that we should wait until next year, later in the summer, to rework that bed, but can we cut off the ragged brown to make them look healthier now? — N.P., Albuquerque

A: Yes, you could go ahead and snip off the ragged brown from the iris leaves now.

Be thoughtful and don’t snip down too deeply into the green leaf, but be sure to get all the ragged, so to speak. It could help prevent bugs and fungus from becoming troublesome for sure.

While you’re out there tending to that bed, why not offer a high phosphate fertilization to give the resting iris bed a leg up for next year. Please remember to continue to water through the dormant months and then don’t forget to disconnect your hoses from the spigots after each use. Don’t invite plumbing troubles.

Enjoy getting to know the iris and you are right on track wanting to tidy them up.

Happy Diggin’ In!

Tracey Fitzgibbon is a certified nurseryman. Send garden-related questions to Digging In, Albuquerque Journal, 7777 Jefferson NE, Albuquerque, N.M. 87109, or to features@abqjournal.com.